Oven with improved sealing means



5, 1968 r. R. REHBERG ETAL 3, 3

OVEN WITH IMPROVED SEALING MEANS Filed March 30, 1967 u [/9 L/Z/H/l/ /NVA/7'0l?S 71/0/1145 F. Palm-Ea, NORMAN A? 3R0 m/ United States Patent 3,409,003 OVEN WITH IMPROVED SEALING MEANS Thomas R. Rehberg and Norman R. Brown, Chicago Heights, Ill., assignors to General Electric Company, a corporation of New York Filed Mar. 30, 1967, Ser. No. 627,035 9 Claims. (Cl. 126190) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE An oven includes an oven chamber opening at the front of the oven and a front peripheral wall on which are mounted four resilient metal strips surrounding the chamber opening. The strips have raised deflectible portions which are engaged and deflected rearwardly by two pivotally mounted doors when the doors are closed to provide a peripheral seal between the chamber and the doors. The doors have inner edges of stepped formation with portions overlapping when the doors are closed to provide an additional seal.

This application discloses certain structural details which are disclosed and claimed in application Serial No. 627,036 filed on even date herewith in the name of Thomas R. Rehberg.

In ovens for preparing food products it is desirable that an effective seal be provided to prevent the escape of cooking vapors and heated air from the chamber. The provision of an effective seal is essential in ovens of the forced convection type which include a fan for circulating heated air through the oven chamber. In such ovens whirling air currents are created in the chamber which necessitates provision of a very effective seal to prevent escape of air from the chamber. Forced convection ovens of previous design have either omitted seals entirely or have included rubber or fiberglass seals which deteriorate in time and which are difficult to clean.

It is accordingly an object of the invention to provide an oven having a novel and improved seal which is inexpensive, durable and easily cleanable and which is effective to prevent loss of air from the oven chamber through the oven door.

It is another object of the invention to provide a forced convection oven having a novel and improved offset door lap seal which is inexpensive, durable and easily cleanable.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a forced convection oven having a novel and improved double sealing arrangement including a metal strip peripheral seal and an independent offset door lap seal.

In carrying out the invention in one preferred form thereof, the oven includes a housing defining an oven chamber opening at the front of the housing, with the housing having a front peripheral wall surrounding the front opening of the chamber. A pair of door halves are mounted by the housing at the front for movement relative to the housing between closed positions wherein the doors overlie the front opening and the peripheral wall, and open positions wherein the doors are spaced from and expose the front opening. The peripheral seal comprises substantially rigid and resilient strip means having a deflectible raised portion connected to a laterally extending side flange coextensive with the raised portion. The strip "ice means is secured to the front peripheral wall by suitable fasteners applied to the flange with the raised portion completely surrounding the front opening and projecting toward the front to be engaged and deflected rearwardly by the inner walls of the doors when the doors are closed. When the raised portion is deflected by the doors it engages and exerts a force on the doors throughout a path which completely surrounds the front opening to thereby provide an effective peripheral seal between the chamber and the doors. The offset door lap seal of the present invention comprises stepped inner edges of the two door halves providing overlapping and abutting surfaces of the doors when such are closed. The double sealing arrangement provided by the independent peripheral and offset door lap seals is highly effective in preventing the escape of air from the oven chamber.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIGURE 1 is a view in perspective showing the oven of the present invention with the oven doors in open position to expose the oven chamber;

FIGURE 2 is a view in horizontal section of the oven of FIGURE 1 with parts broken away showing the doors in closed position and engaging and deflecting the sealing strips;

FIGURE 3 is a fragmentary view in front elevation showing portions of two adjacent sealing strips with their adjacent bevelled ends in abutment;

FIGURE 4 is a view in perspective showing a section of one of the sealing strips; and

FIGURE 5 is an enlarged view of the left hand portion of FIGURE 2 showing in full lines the left hand door in open position and the associated vertical sealing strip in undeflected condition, and showing in dashed lines the door in closed position and the vertical sealing strip in deflected condition.

Referring now to the drawings there is illustrated in FIGURE 1 an oven for preparing food products incorporating the present invention. While the invention is applicable to ovens of various types, the invention has particular utility in connection with an oven of the forced air convection type and such an oven is illustrated in FIGURE 1.

The oven shown in FIGURE 1 includes a housing represented generally by the numeral 10 and formed of any suitable material such as steel. The housing 10 includes a top section 11, a bottom section 12, side sections 13 and 14 and a rear section 15 which define a chamber 16 of generally rectangular configuration opening at the front of the oven. The housing 10 also includes a front peripheral wall 17 which completely surrounds the front opening of the chamber 16 and which faces the front. A plurality of rails 18 are mounted on the side sections 13 and 14 within the chamber 16 in vertically spaced relation to removably support horizontally a plurality of racks 19 in vertically spaced relation. The racks 19 are provided for the purpose of supporting food products to be prepared and any suitable number of racks may be provided.

The oven includes door means mounted at the front for movement relative to the housing between a closed position wherein the door means overlies the front opening and a portion of the front wall 17, and an open position wherein the door means is spaced from and exposes the front opening. In the illustrated embodiment, the door means comprises a pair of doors 20 and 21 mounted by the housing at the front for pivotal movement about spaced vertical axes adjacent opposite sides of the front opening. To this end the doors and 21 carry pivots 22 which are journaled in openings formed in a forwardly extending portion 23 of the top section 11 and in a forwardly extending portion 24 of the bottom section 12.

Any suitable means may be provided to permit actuation of the doors 20 and 21 between their open and closed positions. In the embodiment illustrated a handle 25 is mounted on the door 20 and suitable linkage (not shown) is connected between the doors 20 and 21 to permit substantially simultaneous opening and closing movements of the doors in response to actuation of the door 20 through the agency of the handle 25. The linkage (not shown) may be of any suitable construction such as a sprocket wheel and sprocket chain assembly connected to the pivots 22 and may be contained within a hollow portion of the bottom section 12. The door linkage comprises no part of the present invention and for this reason is not shown. The doors 20 and 21 contain windows 26 and 27 to permit inspection of food products within the chamber 16 when the doors are closed.

A bafile plate 28 is mounted within the chamber 16 to extend vertically in forwardly spaced relation with the rear section 15. The baffle plate extends between the side sections 13 and 14 and is spaced from the top and bottom sections 11 and 12. In order to heat air in the chamber 16 suitable heating means shown in the form of electric heating elements 29 are mounted in the space between the baflle plate 28 and the rear section 15.

In order to circulate heated air through the chamber 16 the oven includes air circulating means comprising a fan 30 which is positioned adjacent an opening 31 formed in the baflle plate 28. The fan 30 is rotated by a motor (not shown) to draw air through the opening 31 and move it over the heating elements 29 and around the upper and lower edges of the baffle plate 28. The forced circulation of air within the chamber 16 resulting from operation of the fan 30 creates whirling air currents which would likely cause undesirable escape of cooking vapors and humid air from the chamber 16 in the absence of effective sealing means.

In order to prevent the escape of air from the chamber 16 the present invention provides a novel and improved double sealing arrangement comprising a peripheral seal surrounding the front opening of the chamber 16 and engaged by the doors 20 and 21, and an offset door lap seal between the meeting edges of the doors 20 and 21. The peripheral seal comprises substantially rigid and resilient strip means secured to the front peripheral wall 16 and including a deflectible raised portion completely surrounding the front opening of the chamber 16. The raised portion is positioned to be engaged and deflected rearwardly by the doors 20 and 21 when such are moved to their closed positions. In accordance with the preferred embodiment of the invention illustrated, the strip means comprises four metallic strips 36, 37, 38, and 39 of identical cross sectional configuration but of varying lengths secured to the front wall 17 in a rectangular configuration with mitered corners. The strips may be formed of any suitable material such as for example stainless steel, nickel plated cold rolled steel, and aluminum coated cold rolled steel. The cross sectional configuration of each of the sealing strips is best shown in FIGURES 4 and 5 which illustrate the strip 36 which is mounted at the left hand side of the oven to extend vertically as viewed in FIG- URE 1. The strips 37, 38, and 39 are mounted respectively horizontally at the top, vertically at the right and horizontally at the bottom, all as viewed in FIGURE 1. The horizontal strips 37 and 39 are longer than the vertical strips 36 and 38.

Referring now to FIGURES 4 and 5 each of the strips includes a central raised portion 40 of generally V-shaped 4. configuration having a longitudinal apex 41 and sloping sides 42 and 43 integrally connected to laterally extending coplanar flanges 44 and 45. The side flanges 44 and 45 are longitudinally coextensive with the raised portion 40 and are of a double thickness formed by folding edge sections of the flanges back upon the inner sections of the flanges.

In the present invention the strips 36-39 are secured to the front wall 17 by suitable fasteners 48 which secure only the inner flanges 45 to the front wall 17. The fasteners 48 may comprise screws which extend through aligned threaded openings of the flanges 45 and the front Wall 17. As best shown in FIGURES 2 and 5 the strips are mounted with their apices 41 projecting forwardly to be engaged and deflected by the inner surfaces of the doors 20 and 21 when such are closed. In FIGURE 5 the door 20 is shown in full lines in its open position and when it is moved to its closed position as shown in dashed lines, it engages and deflects the raised central portion 40 rearwardly which results in outward lateral movement of the unsecured side flange 44 also as shown in dashed lines. Each of the strips 36-39 includes a pair of forty-five degree bevelled edges with the bevelled edges of adjacent strips abutting when the strips are operatively mounted. Referring to FIGURE 3 bevelled edges 50 and 51 of the strips 37 and 38 respectively are shown in abutment.

The seal afforded by the strips 36-39 is very effective in preventing the escape of air from the chamber 16. When the raised central portions 40 of the strips are deflected by the doors 20 and 21, the raised portions engage the inner surfaces of the doors with force throughout a rectangular path which completely surrounds the opening of the chamber 16 to thereby provide a very effective peripheral seal between the chamber and the doors. Preferred dimensions of the strips 36-39 are a thickness of .0149 inch, a width of 1.5 inches when undeflected, an overall height of the apex of .25 inch when undeflected, and a width of each flange of .375 inch. In addition, the vertical strips 36 and 38 have a length dimention of 20.125 inches taken along its shortest extent and the horizontal strips 37 and 39 have a length dimension of 29.125 inches taken along its shortest extent. The peripheral seal per se is not the joint invention of Thomas R. Rehberg and Norman R. Brown and is disclosed and claimed in the aforementioned application filed by Thomas R. Rehberg.

The double sealing arrangement of the present invention includes an offset door lap seal between the meeting vertical inner edges of the two doors 20 and 21. To this end the inner edges of the two doors are formed with a stepped configuration as best shown in FIGURE 2 with the door 20 having three perpendicularly related surfaces 52, 53, and 54 and with the door 21 having similarly three perpendicularly related surfaces 55, 56, and 57. These surfaces define a recess and a projection of each door with the recesses and projections of the two doors interfitting such that the surfaces 53 and 56 overlap and abut when the doors are closed as viewed in FIGURE 2. The surfaces 53 and 56 abut in a plane which is parallel to the planes of the doors when such are closed to provide an effective seal between the inner edges of the doors.

Although the invention has been described with reference to certain specific embodiments thereof, numerous modifications are possible and it is desired to cover all modifications falling within the spirit and scope of the invention.

What we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. Sealing means for minimizing the flow of air from an oven which includes a housing defining an oven chamber opening at the front of the housing, said housing having a front peripheral wall surrounding the front opening of the chamber and facing the front of the housing, and a pair of door halves mounted by said housing at the front thereof for pivotal movement relative to the housing about spaced parallel axes between closed positions wherein the doors overlie said front opening and said front wall, and open positions wherein said doors are spaced from and expose said front opening,

said sealing means including a first seal comprising substantially rigid and resilient metallic strip means having a longitudinally extending deflectible raised portion connected to a laterally extending flange co extensive with said raised portion,

said strip means being disposed on said front wall to completely surround said front opening with said flange against said front .wall laterally closer to said front opening than said raised portion and with said raised portion projecting forwardly from said front wall to be engaged and deflected rearwardly toward said front wall by said doors when the doors are moved to closed positions,

fastening means fastening said flange against said front wall,

said raised portion when deflected by said doors en gaging said doors throughout a path which completely surrounds said front opening to provide an effective peripheral seal between the chamber and the doors, and

a second seal comprising confronting inner edges of said doors having a stepped configuration defining a recess and a projection of each inner edge, said recesses and projections interfitting when the doors are closed with surfaces in abutment in a plane which is generally parallel to the planes of the doors when such are closed.

2. Sealing means as defined in claim 1 wherein said strip means comprises four separate metallic strips arranged in a rectangular configuration having mitered corners.

3. Sealing means as defined in claim 1, wherein said strip means comprises four separate metallic strips arranged in a rectangular configuration having mitered corners, each strip having a longitudinally extending raised central portion and a pair of laterally extending coplanar flanges longitudinally coextensive with said raised central portion, said fastening means fastening only the inwardly extending flange of each strip against said front wall.

4. Sealing means for minimizing the flow of air from an oven which includes a housing defining an oven chamber opening at the front of the housing, said housing having a front peripheral wall surrounding the front opening of the chamber and facing the front of the housing, and a pair of doors mounted by said housing at the front thereof for pivotal movement relative thereto about spaced vertical axes adjacent opposite sides of said front opening, said doors being movable between closed positions wherein the doors overlie said front Opening and said front wall, and open positions wherein the doors are spaced from and expose said front opening,

said sealing means including a first seal comprising four separate substantially rigid resilient metallic strips each having a longitudinally extending raised central portion of generally V-shaped cross section and a pair of coplanar laterally extending flanges integrally connected to the ends of the legs of the V and longitudinally coextensive with said raised central portion, each of said stn'ps having bevelled ends,

said strips being disposed on said front wall in a rectangular configuration with their bevelled ends abutting to completely surround said front opening with said flanges against said front wall and with the apices of said V-shaped raised central portions located forwardly of said flanges to be engaged and deflected rearwardly toward said front wall by said doors when the doors are moved to their closed positions,

fastening means fastening only the inwardly extending flanges of said strips against said front wall to permit outward lateral displacement of the unsecured outwardly extending flanges in response to engagement and deflection of the apices of said raised central portions by said doors,

the apices of said raised central portions when deflected by said doors engaging said doors through out a rectangular path which completely surrounds said front opening to provide an effective peripheral seal between the chamber and the doors, and

a second seal comprising confronting vertically extending inner edges of said doors having a stepped configuration defining a recess and a projection of each inner edge, said recesses and projections interfitting when the doors are closed with surfaces in abutment in a plane which is generally parallel to the planes of the doors when such are closed, said surfaces being in abutment along a vertically extending path. 5.Sealing means for minimizing the flow of air from an oven which includes a housing defining an oven chamber opening at the front of the housing, said housing having a front peripheral wall surrounding the front opening of the chamber and facing the front of the housing, and a pair of door halves mounted by said housing at the front thereof for pivotal movement relative to the housing about spaced parallel axes between closed positions wherein the doors overlie said front opening and said front wall, and open positions wherein said doors are spaced from and expose said front opensaid sealing means including resilient sealing means secured to said front Wall to completely surround said front opening to be engaged and deflected rearwardly toward said front wall by said doors when the doors are moved to closed positions, said sealing means engaging said doors when such are closed throughout a path which completely surrounds said front opening to provide an effective peripheral seal between the chamber and the doors, and

said sealing means also including confronting inner edges of said doors having a stepped configuration defining a recess and a projection of each inner edge, said recesses and projections interfitting when the doors are closed with surfaces in abutment in a plane which is generally parallel to the planes of the doors when such are closed.

6. Sealing means for minimizing the flow of air from an oven which includes a housing defining an oven chamber opening at the front of the housing, said housing having a front peripheral wall surrounding the front opening of the chamber and facing the front of the housing, and a pair of door halves mounted by said housing at the front thereof for pivotal movement relative to the housing about spaced parallel axes between closed positions wherein the doors overlie said front opening and said front wall, and open positions wherein said doors are spaced from and expose said front opening,

said sealing means including confronting inner edges of said doors having a stepped configuration defining a recess and a projection of each inner edge, said recesses and projections interfitting when the doors are closed with surfaces in abutment in a plane which is generally parallel to the planes of the doors when such are closed, said surfaces comprising fixed nondeformable integral parts of said doors.

7. Sealing means as defined in claim 4 wherein each of said laterally extending flanges is of double thickness formed by folding edge sections of the flange back upon the inner section thereof.

8. Sealing means as defined in claim 5 wherein said doors are mounted for pivotal movement about vertical axes, said inner edges of said doors extending vertically, said surfaces being in abutment along a vertically extending path.

9. Sealing means as defined in claim 6 wherein said doors are mounted for pivotal movement about vertical axes, said inner edges of said doors extending vertically, said surfaces being in abutment along a vertically extending path.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Anthony.

Drachenberg.

Michaels 49-485 Spreen 49485 Antrim 126--190 Spooner 126--273 Brock 49--3 67 XR Pearce 126-273 XR Bevilacqua.

Long 126-490 XR Tylisz 49485 XR KENNETH W. SPRAGU-E, Primary Examiner. 

